Gunmen threw bombs and opened fire on a cattle market in northeastern Nigeria, killing at least 60 people, a spokesman for the Yobe state governor said.

"The Yobe State Governor has visited the Potiskum cattle market where he was informed that 60 people had been killed in the attack, while 29 people are receiving treatment at the hospital," Abdullahi Bego, spokesman for Governor Ibrahim Gaidam, said.

It was not clear who was behind the attack overnight on Wednesday in the town of Potiskum in the country's northeast.

Some reports suggested that robbers angered by a crowd burning one of their colleagues alive earlier in the day had attacked the cattle market in retaliation.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

A hospital nurse said he had counted 56 bodies at the Potiskum morgue.

"I am sure that the death toll could rise in view of the serious nature of injuries sustained," the nurse at Potiskum hospital, Babangida, said. "The Potiskum mortuary is made up of a room and a parlour and I counted the 56 in the parlour only. I didn't go into the inner room."